What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Wisconsin Women's Hockey 2024-2025

BadgerDad2022 said:
Who are the recruits that the Badgers are looking at in this next recruiting cycle? Will there be more girls from Wisconsin on the roster going forward or is the cupboard just too bare?
Click to expand...

25-26, G Stewart, D's R Gorbotenko & M Jones. F's C Piekinhagen, A Sapovalivova, N Gorbotenko
26-27, I have no info. The McNaughton/Simms days of knowing they are coming for 4 years are gone.

As far as recruiting WI players, current WI HS hockey seems to not be at the level that produces players skilled enough for the WI roster. Vasseur is from Oregon, but played HS out east. That seems to be the path to UW if your from WI, or play college somewhere else and transfer in. The last WI HS players I recall being on the WI roster directly from HS were Rowe and Posick.

Really bummed about Maddy. 3 Fr F plus Vasseur (assuming she and Enright get medical redshirts) who hasn't played a college shift yet, K Gorbotenko semi spot played and Enright missed the whole year so inexperienced at F. Maddy played all over the top 3 lines when MJ was going mad scientist on the lines. I'd really love to know how much input Krum has on the O lines and Koch on the D pairs.
 
If depth at forward is an issue, Brigitte McGuire out of SSM is in the portal. She is listed on the UConn roster as a ’23-’24 freshman but with zero stats and has four years of eligibility left. She could be another developmental prospect like Vasseur but with the handicap of not being around the UW program this past season. With the Olympics looming, it does not hurt to have people on the roster who won’t play many minutes next season but will be able to fill in during February 2026 when USA Hockey and the governing bodies for Canada, Czechia, etc. borrow UW’s best players.
 
BadgerDad2022 said:
Who are the recruits that the Badgers are looking at in this next recruiting cycle? Will there be more girls from Wisconsin on the roster going forward or is the cupboard just too bare?
Click to expand...

The reality always is if you want to know who our top targets are, go to the last Womens U18s and find out who the uncommitted because they were too young players are on the USA and Canada. The 26-27 contact window doesn't open for another couple months so it won't be until then that we'll get a good idea. (Outside of obviously everyone will be interested in Nela Lopusanova, and hopefully her and Finley McCarthy stay long-distance BFFs this year.)

The cupboard is incredibly bare in Wisconsin, it's tough to find Wisconsin HS players who even get invites to the giant USA U15 Developmental Camps much less get any run at the big events.
 
Ooftah said:
Vasseur's bio on the UW site lists her hometown as Oregon, as in the village in Dane County and not the state of. I have no reason to dispute it.

https://uwbadgers.com/sports/womens-ice-hockey/roster
Click to expand...

Back when she committed/signed, her being listed as "from Oregon" but playing in NY was discussed, but I don't think we managed to come to any definitive conclusions about it. Spending five minutes today using a couple of the various "people search" web sites, both her parents are shown as having lived at an Oregon address and at a Waitsfield Vermont address (and unfortunately, it might be the case that one currently lives in Oregon, and the other in Vermont?)
 
BadgerPete said:
The reality always is if you want to know who our top targets are, go to the last Womens U18s and find out who the uncommitted because they were too young players are on the USA and Canada. The 26-27 contact window doesn't open for another couple months so it won't be until then that we'll get a good idea. (Outside of obviously everyone will be interested in Nela Lopusanova, and hopefully her and Finley McCarthy stay long-distance BFFs this year.)

The cupboard is incredibly bare in Wisconsin, it's tough to find Wisconsin HS players who even get invites to the giant USA U15 Developmental Camps much less get any run at the big events.
Click to expand...

That's a shame about Wisconsin girl's high school hockey. Seems like a lot of the best players are headed the prep school route these days. Saw Shattuck St Mary's won at 16U and 19U this year so the rich get richer. Hopefully we can pull another Maggie Scannell from there in the 2026-27 cycle
 
BadgerDad2022 said:
That's a shame about Wisconsin girl's high school hockey. Seems like a lot of the best players are headed the prep school route these days. Saw Shattuck St Mary's won at 16U and 19U this year so the rich get richer. Hopefully we can pull another Maggie Scannell from there in the 2026-27 cycle
Click to expand...

these numbers are a couple years old but Here’s a different way to look at Wisco girls hockey. Relative to the vast majority of states you have more total girls playing hockey in terms of raw numbers. Wisconsin is 5th in the nation with 4,870. (Minn, mass, NY, MI) have more.

If you look at girls hockey enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment in the state, Wisco is ranked 5th, with 23.2% of total enrollees girls/women. Only Vermont, Minn, Alaska, and Mass. have higher % of enrollees girls/women. VT leads with 27%.

Maybe Wisco is due for an elite girls program or enhancing an elite program I’m sure is there already. There are seemingly good things happening in the state for girls hockey, regardless.
 
Lindsay said:
these numbers are a couple years old but Here’s a different way to look at Wisco girls hockey. Relative to the vast majority of states you have more total girls playing hockey in terms of raw numbers. Wisconsin is 5th in the nation with 4,870. (Minn, mass, NY, MI) have more.

If you look at girls hockey enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment in the state, Wisco is ranked 5th, with 23.2% of total enrollees girls/women. Only Vermont, Minn, Alaska, and Mass. have higher % of enrollees girls/women. VT leads with 27%.

Maybe Wisco is due for an elite girls program or enhancing an elite program I’m sure is there already. There are seemingly good things happening in the state for girls hockey, regardless.
Click to expand...

You bring up a good point in that Wisconsin girls hockey is in fact doing well from a participation point. I think it's only when we're discussing it from the standpoint of UW recruiting that it is lacking.

And part of that is that we don't have a magnet school like Shattuck or Bishop Kearney, and we don't have a marquee club program like Little Caesars or Chicago Mission. Everything flatlines out at the HS level, which makes it tough for potential elite players (and future potential Badger recruits) to develop if they don't leave for those greener pastures.
 
robertearle said:
Back when she committed/signed, her being listed as "from Oregon" but playing in NY was discussed, but I don't think we managed to come to any definitive conclusions about it. Spending five minutes today using a couple of the various "people search" web sites, both her parents are shown as having lived at an Oregon address and at a Waitsfield Vermont address (and unfortunately, it might be the case that one currently lives in Oregon, and the other in Vermont?)
Click to expand...

Vasseur's situation sounds similar to Katie Kotlowski's. Katie was born and grew up in La Crosse but moved in with a host family in Minnesota because she couldn't play high school girl's hockey in Wisconsin. Two examples are not evidence of a trend but it would not take much research to find other examples of Wisconsin-born talent going elsewhere to follow their dreams.
 
As I understand Vasseur is a lifelong Vermonter but her family moved to Wisconsin in the last couple years, after the commitment. Waitsfield, Vermont was her listed hometown with Bishop Kearney.
 
Vasseur is from Vermont. She played at Naha in 8th grade (before the program moved to Boston). She committed to UW before the recruiting rule change, then went to BK for 9-12.
 
I'm excited to see Vasseur. At U19 Nationals in 2023 she was tied for second in the tournament in scoring, more than Scannell, Hall, McCarthy, or Gorbatenko. She didn't get the notoriety coming in I think because she didn't get any USA U18 Worlds run like the others, but she's put up numbers at the big club tourneys.
 
Something I guess I didn't fully realize until yesterday:

Generally, grad transfers can enter the portal "any time". But in practice, while their "window" starts at the beginning of their final undergrad year, it closes when their individual sport's window closes. For women's hockey this year, that's April 30th.

That is, for somebody like Katie Kotlowski, if she wants to play hockey next season somewhere other than Wisconsin, she has until next Tuesday to submit her name to the portal, just like any undergrad who still intends to transfer. Of course, her intent may be to simply graduate and move on to the next phase of her life. But I guess I'm still holding out hope she comes back to UW for the 24-25 season. Fingers crossed til next Tuesday.
 
Hockeybuckeye said:
Looks like Maddi Wheeler might become a Buckeye!
Click to expand...

The "wise guy" response would be "You seem pretty excited about a Badger third-liner. That's understandable." :-)

Thanks and congratulations to Maddi for two national championships, WCHA championships, and of course graduation. Once a Badger, always a Badger.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top